During a recent conversation with Stereogum, David Crosby opened up about the latest controversies surrounding the music streaming platform, Spotify. According to the musician, people who work there are evil, and the reason he sold his publishing rights was because of the pandemic as well as the low payments that weren’t enough for his family.
Recent weeks have been filled with an ongoing controversy about Spotify and famous podcaster Joe Rogan. When people realized that the host was spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines through his podcast on the streaming platform, the company drew major criticism for letting such a show be on it.
As people started digging deeper into his shows, it turned out that Rogan had other questionable conversations in his episodes. After catching the use of racial slurs, Spotify removed more than 100 episodes from its servers. However, the first discovery of Rogan’s insist on spreading misinformation was more than enough for some artists to pull their music from Spotify.
One of those artists was David Crosby who previously slammed Spotify for killing the music industry with their unfair payment to young generations of musicians. Following Neil Young’s departure from Spotify, Crosby and his former bandmates in Crosby, Stills & Nash also removed their music from the platform.
Long before this entire debate, David Crosby has been a vocal critic of Spotify and every other streaming platform, bringing out the matter of making a living as a musician. In fact, Crosby himself sold his publishing rights to Irving Azoff and candidly spoke about it on his official Twitter page numerous times, saying he needs to support himself and his family which isn’t as easy as his fans think.
During a recent interview, the musician was asked if the ongoing controversy can cause a bigger change in the music industry when it comes to streaming platforms, both financially and ethically. David Crosby started his words by saying that he doesn’t see a conscience growing in these companies. Moreover, those who work there willingly aren’t good people as they know what companies are doing to musicians.
Furthermore, Crosby stated that he was okay with going on stage and playing live shows which were sufficient for him to take care of his family. However, the coronavirus prevented him from playing live shows which resulted in him struggling financially. Eventually, Crosby was left with no choice but to sell his publishing rights which wasn’t something he wanted to do, but something rather he had to.
When asked if his actions could lead to a change, Crosby said:
“I don’t see them growing a conscience. I don’t believe there are good people working there. If they were good people, they wouldn’t work there. They’re not going to suddenly grow some balls and stand against the trend. They’re not going to feel the need to do the right thing. They’re going to keep on collecting money and being shitty to the world. That’s what we have to deal with.
I was trying to be grateful that I could still go out and play live and pay the rent and take care of my family. Then along comes COVID-19 and I couldn’t do that either. That’s why I sold my publishing to Irving. I didn’t wanna sell my publishing, man. I didn’t wanna sell a goddamn thing. I didn’t have any goddamn choice.”
It appears that David Crosby doesn’t hold his hopes high when it comes to seeing a true change in these streaming platforms as he thinks they don’t care about the music itself. As Crosby has been feeling negative about this situation that in this interview, he advised younger musicians to not become a musician at all which reflected the desperation of the matter.
